If I'm not scrapbooking I'm thinking about scrapbooking!
It looks to me like I was a Santa fan right from the start. This is Christmas morning 1968, and I am deep in it.
I cut the wreath design with a Silhouette file and backed the white cardstock with a glittered snowflake paper from My Mind’s Eye. All the other elements came from two different holiday collections by BasicGrey—Evergreen and Eskimo Kisses.
Note: I’m submitting this to the Paper Issues Owl I Want for Christmas link party.
Today Stuck?! Sketches launches our second challenge of December. Grab the sketch and play along for some great prizes: Lindy’s Stamp Gang ($25.00 gift certificate) and Scrapmatts (two large pieces of chipboard).
My brother and I have always loved to wrap gifts. We are pretty obviously having a good time with it in this Christmas 1973 photo. I just love that smile on Phil’s face.
I used patterned papers from the Chickaniddy Crafts Jolly Good 6×6 paper pad and some very old chipboard elements from K&Co Marcella. I designed and cut the title on my Silhouette.
Note: I’m submitting this to the Paper Issues Owl I Want for Christmas link party.
When Mom came to visit for Thanksgiving and my birthday in 2006, we took a day trip to Fredericksburg. On our way out of town that night we saw this. These trees were just one small part of the lights display on the electric company’s grounds. It was delightful.
I was inspired by the Paper Issues December mood board below. I chose to use these Heidi Swapp Christmas papers because I wanted a page that used a good bit of red, black and white mixed with traditional holiday colors. Plus this background paper with the stars at the top and built-in title was just perfect for my photo. The metal snowflake button is an old one from my stash, and the wood buttons are from American Crafts. The poinsettia and holly vellum stickers are probably a dozen years old, and I’m so happy to have found a way to use them.
Note: I’m also submitting this to the Paper Issues Owl I Want for Christmas link party.
One of our family Christmas traditions happened a bit by accident. Over the years we noticed a pattern—on the night that we put up and decorated our Christmas tree, The Sound of Music very often also appeared on television. We all love that movie, so we would be half decorating and half standing with ornaments in our hands while zoned in one the film. Dad was the only one fully focused on the task of getting the tree finished, and did not at all appreciate our halfheartedness.
Nowadays, because you can just pop in the DVD or stream a movie whenever you want, it doesn’t seem like a big deal. But back in the day it was special serendipity to have it showing on our tree-decorating night. And so the accidental tradition was formed.
Based on the song My Favorite Things from The Sound of Music, I created this page of our sweet Lucy under our Christmas tree in 2008. Like most cats, she loves, loves, loves Christmas trees. And presents.
Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens,
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens.
Brown paper packages tied up with strings,
These are a few of my favorite things.
The background paper is from Simple Stories December Documented collection, the patterns in the frames are from Pink Paislee’s Snow Village 6×6 pad, and the frames cut file is from the Silhouette store. I designed and cut the title on my Silhouette also.
I come from a family of highly talented gift wrappers. I would go so far as to call them gift-wrap artists. My mom and my dad each had their preferred way of measuring, creasing, taping and decorating the package, and my brother and I studied these methods at their elbows throughout our childhood years. We have always taken pride in the finished product and usually spent part of the gift-opening process on Christmas morning oohing and ahhing at each other’s efforts.
Then I married Matt. I would describe his gift-wrap aesthetic and skill as those of an angry spider monkey. There is no measuring, only guessing. There is no creasing, only crushing. There is no judicious use of tape to make it appear as if the wrapping is hanging together by magic, no strategic placement. And there is certainly no decorating of packages. Bows are thoroughly disdained in the Pardo tradition.
I am convinced at this point in our years together that Matt strives to make his packages look even worse than they have to, just to irk me. We laugh about it every Christmas, so I suppose it’s now one of our holiday traditions.
#santasmessyhelper
I wanted to include the blue and green from my photo in my color palette, but I didn’t want to be limited to only those two. So I ended up using these old patterned papers from The Paper Studio and K&Co. The chipboard elements are also from K&Co. I cut the lettering on my Silhouette and added a silver sequin to each Christmas tree and a few of the snowflakes in the paper.
Note: I’m submitting this to the Paper Issues Owl I Want for Christmas link party.